Comments on: Fix the value gap – a reply to Michael Geist https://www.barrysookman.com/2017/01/09/fix-the-value-gap-a-reply-to-michael-geist/
Technology, Copyright and Intellectual Property, Internet, e-Commerce and Privacy LawThu, 12 Jan 2017 15:55:19 +0000
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By: John Degen https://www.barrysookman.com/2017/01/09/fix-the-value-gap-a-reply-to-michael-geist/comment-page-1/#comment-259832
Thu, 12 Jan 2017 15:55:19 +0000https://www.barrysookman.com/?p=26273#comment-259832Thank you, Mr. Sookman, for bringing facts and logic to bear on the now-standard free-culture bafflegab. Prof. Geist’s highly selective take on history manages also to ignore 2012’s giant fair dealing loophole – the poorly defined and unregulated educational fair dealing category that is costing Canadian creators tens of millions of dollars per year, and landing educators in federal court – while insisting that there is somehow not enough fair dealing freedom in this country. Any suggestion that creators and our industry partners previously lobbied for the changes that have hurt us is insulting and silly. The Focus on Creators campaign (https://focusoncreators.ca/) shows that Canada’s cultural sector is united in our call for serious copyright regulation, as we were before 2012. This point by point rebuttal of Geist is an important object-lesson to the lawmakers who will be reviewing the Copyright Modernization Act later this year. Copyright is incredibly nuanced, far more nuanced than the bullhorns of free culture would have you believe. It is possible to both support fair dealing (as the vast majority of professional creators do) and to call for meaningful regulation of its excesses. The value gap and the damage from unregulated fair dealing are real, and the primary beneficiaries of them are in the technology sector. If someone is telling you these things are not real, it’s probably best to ask why.
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